1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer graphics and, more particularly, to a method and system for creating custom computer graphic representations of input and output data.
2. Description of Related Art
Business application software available today, such as Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet software, for example, provides limited functionality in creating graphic representations of input and output data such as data contained in the cells of a spreadsheet, for example. These programs allow users to assign standard bar graphs and/or pie charts, for example, which are provided as part of the software package. Typically, the range of creativity in generating these graphics is limited to selecting graphic components that are contained or made available in the software application programs themselves. Additionally, the graphic representations of the input and output data, once they are created, must reside as part of the underlying business application software. In other words, it cannot be exported as a stand-alone piece of software that may be executed and manipulated independently of the underlying business application software.
There currently exists a great divide between computer graphic/animation features offered in the context of business application software programs and that offered in the context of other software environments such as video games or web pages on the world wide web (i.e., the Internet), for example. In these latter environments, the advancement of computer graphic and animation techniques has led to visually exciting and stimulating product offerings to consumers. As is readily observable by simply “surfing the net,” or visiting a video game store or arcade, the advancements in computer graphic and animation technology to date has been remarkable.
Various software packages or techniques for creating computer graphics and animations for web pages and/or video games are known in the art. For example, Macromedia Inc.'s Flash™ program is well-known and widely used today to create computer graphics and animations for web pages. Flash™ enables users to generate computer graphics and animations in the form of compressed audio and video files (.swf files) which can be executed by a Flash Player™ program. Flash Player™ is a well-known program that is executable as a standalone application or as a Plug-in program that is available on a variety of platforms for a variety of Web Browsers.
To date, no method or system allows every day users of business application software programs to utilize advanced external computer graphic and animation software (e.g., Flash™) to create dynamic, interactive and content-rich computer graphics and animations to represent data in their business software applications. Thus, there is a need for a method and system that allows users to associate externally-created graphics and/or animations (collectively referred to herein as “graphics”) with input and output data of business application software programs, so as to create a dynamic and interactive graphic representation of the input and output data. There is a further need for a method and system that allows users to associate externally-created graphics with input and output data of a business application software program so as to create a dynamic and interactive computer graphics file representative of the input and output data, wherein the computer graphics file may be executed by a standalone program that is independent of the business application software program.